1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to the installation of plumbing fixtures, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for installing floor fixtures such as floor sinks and floor drains.
2. Background Information
Recall that unlike other types of plumbing fixtures, floor sinks and drains install directly in a concrete floor. Once installed, the rim of the fixture lies flush with the upper surface of the floor. In that position, liquid at floor level flows directly into the fixture and through an outlet at the bottom to a drainpipe beneath the floor. Such fixtures find widespread use, and many floor fixtures appear in the concrete floors of buildings used for markets, restaurants, hospitals, and the like in order to comply with applicable building codes. So, the details of installation demand attention.
Consider existing methods of installation in a concrete floor. Before installation, plumbers run a drainpipe through trenching to each installation location. Then, workers establish a dirt grade (i.e., the floor foundation) on which the concrete floor is to be poured. After that, the floor fixture installer places a cardboard sleeve (e.g., a section of sauna tube) over each drainpipe. For installation of a one-foot square floor sink in a six-inch thick concrete floor, for example, the sleeve may measure about two feet in diameter and about one foot long. After placing a sleeve over each drainpipe, the installer carefully fills the sleeves with sand to prevent collapse during the process of pouring the concrete floor.
With a sand-filled sleeve in place over the drainpipe at each installation location, workers pour the concrete floor and finish it at a predetermined floor level. Some days later, after the concrete has set, the floor fixture installer undertakes the somewhat tedious operation of digging out the sand from each sleeve by hand and removing the sleeves, leaving a two-foot diameter hole in the concrete floor around each drainpipe and a pile of sand on the concrete floor adjacent the hole. Next, the installer mounts a floor sink or floor drain fixture at each location by placing it in the hole and coupling it to the drainpipe while maintaining the upper lip of the fixture flush with the upper surface of the concrete floor. The installer then carefully refills the hole with sand to within four to six inches of the upper surface of the concrete floor (depending on the thickness of the concrete slab). Next, the installer pours concrete in the hole and finishes it flush with the lip of the fixture and the concrete previously poured. Then, the installer cleans up the pile of excess sand remaining on the concrete floor.
Thus, installation involves several time-consuming steps: placing the sleeve, filling the sleeve, pouring the concrete, waiting for the concrete to set, digging out the sand, removing the sleeve, connecting the floor fixture, replacing some sand, pouring and finishing more concrete, and, or course, cleaning up the extra sand and discarding the used sleeve. Each of those activities increases project cost and so a need exists for a more efficient, less costly and less time-consuming way to install fixtures such as floor sinks and floor drains.